


The Evil Without

by windsoffreedom



Category: Evil Within - Fandom, Games - Fandom, RPG horror games, The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Guns, Joseb ship, Multi, STEM, Swearing, Virtual Reality, Zombies, depictions of violence, lost in their own minds, post appocalyptic, pre-dlc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:09:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3799774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windsoffreedom/pseuds/windsoffreedom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post game ending, Joseph remains trapped in STEM, while he the events of the game unfold from his perspective, he is faced with the realization that he may forever be stuck in Ruvik's world with no way out. Sebastian attempts to bring his partner back to the world of reality no matter what it takes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Foreword, Joseph: The Fall

“Joseph!…Joseph, where the fuck are you?” 

It was Sebastian’s voice, calling him.

“Sebastian's looking for me” Joseph thought, he was afraid and alone in the darkness. He was sharply aware after the brief gap between him falling and loosing consciousness. Fear had taken an ugly root in his heart. Sebastian's voice was far away but clear, breaking through the fogy atmosphere of his mind. Joseph wanted to reach out to Sebastian, his partner. He wanted to answer him so that the other man could come to help but he couldn't see and he could not move. Any sound he seemed to be making, didn’t reach his partner's ears. He could feel the tips of his fingers but something was restraining him with his back pressed up against a barrier. It was too dark and there was an oppressive feeling on his chest. Hardly breathe, he listened again and he heard Sebastian’s footsteps sounding as if he was in a room next to him, but Joseph knew otherwise. They were in separate dimensions. He felt his partner’s presence move further away from where he was but his voice was still ringing through his mind.  
It was the calm commanding voice that kept him in check, kept him sane. It was Sebastian who pulled him back to reality when he was fading.

“Sebastian.” he said into the darkness, the name let out in an exasperated sigh. Sebastian did not hear him and Joseph stopped struggling against the bonds holding him down. Then he felt sensations in his body return and his memory of what happened before resurfaced. He was shot. The pain was there in his shoulder just bellow the bone, echoing a wave of agony that he was not expecting. Unlike the wounds h had before, the pain traveled through his veins, to the side of his head and to his temples. It burnt hot and raw making his head ache and he began to feel dizzy. The darkness all around did not help things and as he slipped in and out of consciousness, he was not sure if he was still awake or dreaming. Beneath all the pain, his gut twisted with anxiety and crippling loneliness, afraid of what was to come, afraid of being left alone to the haunted and the monsters in Ruvik's hell-hole.

He recalled his fits, the times when he coughed up blood, the episode when he almost turned. That terrifying feeling was still there, lurking like a shadow inside his mind, waiting for him to let his guard down and then devour his last shred of humanity. The pain worsened, engulfing his entire body and that god awful white noise was back, filling his ears and making his head pound. A faint, eerie elevator music began to wail hauntingly over and over and Joseph wanted the torture to end. Perhaps he was finally giving in, turning into one of those things. He hoped that somehow Sebastian would kill him and end his pathetic roaming as a mutilated shell of who he once was. There pain was becoming numb, tricking him, using his body’s exhaustion to lull him to sleep. Around him, reality began to shake and warp violently, the barrier behind his back vanished and his arms and legs fell free. He lurched forward as the ground shook, feeling sick to his stomach, his throat constricting as he choking on bile and air. The drowsiness was back again and Joseph rationalized that there was only a certain amount of stress that the human body could handle before it gave up. A yawning blackness opened up behind him and pavement vanished beneath the edge of his heels. The pain in his head and shoulder is all he feels as his body caves in, falling into oblivion. At the last minute, his heart jumped, pumping adrenaline and he flailed through the sudden gust of emptiness. As he plunged down, his hazy mind offered up a vision of Sebastian putting a bullet through the head of a haunted and Joseph smiled wearily. He would make it out alright..Sebastian was strong. The opening above him grew smaller and closed as he continued to fall and then everything went dark.


	2. Joseph: The Some-Other Place

When Joseph regained consciousness,the room had stopped spinning and everything was still. His mind was calm, without much thought, and his senses had returned to him. He immediately registered that he was lying on something, face down. His cheek was pressed against what felt like a floor, cool, smooth and hard, his face hurt from the weight of his his head on his narrow bit of cheekbone. His stomach and the rest of him was pretty much flat on the ground, his back bent inwards to a point that it ached. He felt like he had been thrown onto the ground from a great height. His arms and hands were flat out beside his head and the one index finger on his left hand was touching what felt like his glasses plus he knew he was still wearing his leather gloves and work clothes. Everything felt intact. He twitched his fingers experimentally, they were fine. As he regained his composure, his keen instincts sought out and studied the environment around him. 

His first immediate response was to lie low in case there was a threat and to remain undetected lest he be attacked. Even with his eyes closed he felt around, slowing his breathing to hear the sounds around him. There was no shuffling, no low moaning. No ominous music or noise, just a still silence. He inhaled deeply, no smoke, no gas, no smell of decaying corpses just dusty air like no one had breathed in it for a while. Gathering the courage to get up, he moved slowly and groaned at the pull in his aching muscles. The grogginess was there, like he had gone to sleep and woken up even more tired than before. He was alive in some sense even though his body was lethargic and protesting for him to get back down onto the floor and lie there for a few more minutes. Also, the hurt from the bullet wound had gone but at that point did not want to find out for sure. If he had mutated somehow, he did not want to see what he had become. With his hands, he pushed himself up, knees bending into position as he sat back on his heels and picked up his glasses. Putting them back on he stood up, his world easing from a blurred landscape into some sort of focus. Still looking down towards the ground, he stumbled slightly catching himself with the wall. Dim light illuminated the floor which had a gloom of slight blue and grey, like the walls around him and perhaps the entire area. 

He was in a corridor of some sort and there were lamps above on the low ceiling. Looking up, he found himself at a four way junction, the middle shaped like a circle with a potted plant in its center acting as a round about. Ahead of him, more dim light lined the corridor. The place was a mess with bits of litter and paper on the floor and for now he sensed that he was alone. No one was there but him. As he straightened up the scene flashed like a rewinding of an old film and the room changed to a simple block by block setting, also a four way but this time, in the hallway ahead of him, to the right, there was a counter resembling some kind of administrative desk, the sort that was in industrial offices. It reminded him of his first work place in a police station except it was more cheery and much less grimy. 

The feeling of claustrophobia was overbearing and so was the feeling of isolation. His old office had always given him the sensation of a maze which he could get lost in and this place was exactly that. Maybe it was a cruel joke, to torment him to his wits ends, getting lost in endless corridors with no exit, to crumble there feeling hopeless and anxious. There were no windows, it was like being in a box and Joseph knew now that there was no way Sebastian could save him. Perhaps he’d finally succeeded in trapping himself in his very own version of an insane asylum. Locked in his own mind. The only way was to keep going, maybe he would find a way to live like this..god knows how long for. 

He checked his belt. His holster was empty. “Goddamnit". He should have known. His eyesight adjusting to the poor lighting, he looked on ahead of him. A few lamps shone ahead and then there was darkness, Joseph figured that the lights would come on as he walked. The path behind him was pitch black and he did not want to go back. “Press ahead.” Sebastian would say. Detective Castellanos was always the brute motivator. He looked around, not wanting to wander out unarmed. There was a hand gun just a few feet away right where his corridor ended. It wasn’t his and was probably out of ammunition but it was better than nothing. He bent down and stretched his arm to pick it up, maintaining his current defensive position. He checked the magazine plus the extra one and it was completely full of unused rounds. Locking it in place he slipped the extra bullets into his holster and held the gun with both hands, his arms outstretched in front of him.  
Keeping his eyes open and alert he moved forward steadily and cautiously, his legs bent, checking the lanes before creeping to the next corridor stealthily. He didn’t trust places like these. Quiet as it seemed, there could be danger nonetheless. He crept forward glad the junction was a short one and that he was not exposed for long. When he reached the end, the lighting had changed. The left and right corridors were where the light was coming form. He chose to go right, looking around the corner quickly before proceeding into the intensity of the blinding whiteness. He had to keep going. If not for himself, for Sebastian, to find the real world again and to work alongside his partner. There was no one else to live for right now and the raw emotion gave him the drive to keep moving. Even if he was going in endless circles.


	3. Sebastian: The Break

Sebastian made his way around the column of damaged cars, stacked one on the other like a tragic horror scene from a demented child’s toy box. Not many of the haunted were left now, just a few stragglers, here and there. Nothing more than reanimated corpses without a purpose or a mind to control them. He was sure that at least one Keeper or Sadist must be around, also those water demons still lurked in clogged streets water ways. Bits of the ruined Krimson remained the way it was, destructed, flooded and post apocalyptic, except this time, there were fires. Tyres, vehicles and buildings were littered around sporadically and at random moments, burst into flames. He’d even seen some of the Haunted self destruct in a volley of agony and self inflicted blazes. This was less of a mastermind’s cruel dimension and more of a sad emptiness of what was left behind.

As much as he’d wanted to never return to this world, Sebastian found that all his endeavors to escape eventually lead him right back here. This time there was a good reason to stay. He still had to find his partner. It had taken a while to locate where Joseph was most likely to be but he retraced his steps eventually. Joseph would have to be alive, holding out somewhere probably confused and dazed. Sebastian hoped that he’d still be sane at least.

At this point in time, he stood, bracing himself behind a rundown ambulance, gun ready in hand. There was a group of Haunted right on the other side on the road and Sebastian needed to get across into the white building which was his destination. It was the same place where the playground collapsed. The place where he would find Joseph. Dead or alive, he did not know. He exhaled deeply, breaking his cover in one swift motion. He aimed for the first Haunted, gunning it down before the others could fully react. His main objective was to get across, so he fired, taking down those closest to him, running without ever stopping until he melee-ed his way in through the dysfunctional revolving doors. The Haunted were still after him and there were probably more of them in the building itself but for now he was fine. 

He paused, panting, stopping to catch his breath. He’d spent two evenings already just making it all the way back from where he started. As far as he knew, Beacon Hospital held the only exit point out of this blasted creation and that would be where he was heading, after he found Joseph. For now he needed a place to rest and take a breather. Climbing the fire stairs on his left, he exited the landing to the first floor. The few rooms he came upon were all either badly damaged or barricaded but the fourth one was completely empty with a sturdy door and lock which worked well enough. Entering it and locking the door behind him, he sat down with his back against the wall. He let himself doze for a while, closing his eyes, the memory of Joseph getting shot, echoing through his mind.


	4. Joseph: The Mind Prison

After some time, Joseph was starting to get a hang of this nonsense. This rubbish of a world that he was stuck in. The building was just made out of impenetrable blocks of walls with no stairs and just narrow corridors with Joseph finding himself back to square one all the time. He tried to escape constantly, taking every option to find his way out but there was none. No matter what choice he made it was still the same place. He was utterly alone and he had no idea how many days had passed as he kept trying, going round and round in circles or if there was anything such as time in this warped reality. He tried to keep himself happy, entertained, muddle himself in his quiet musings, occasionally jotting down things in his diary and attempting to decode the strange symbols that appeared on the walls occasionally, only to disappear the next time he went back to check on it. He’d tried to rid his boredom by keeping himself morally upbeat and progressively he made a map of the area. 

It always consisted at the end, in a corner, a small office like room which had all manners of furniture and paper strewn everywhere. Occasionally he would find a knife or a match or two and even an empty mug there but nothing else. No more else that was important. He’d checked the drawers that were not destroyed to find a few files and then only to discover that most of it was in gibberish and he could not read it or understand a single word of it. There were also newspaper clippings pinned on a bulletin bored but some of them were so old and ragged and faded or had their letters smeared or smudged in ink that they were indelible. There was of course a completely empty administrative slot and a section which he liked to call a coffee place or a pantry. It was always on the left corridors where the flat floor gave way to a carpeted bearing which was faded and covered in a large coffee or tea stain that had spilled onto the floor. There was a wooden bench propped against the wall on one side and something like a couch on the other, where it would end with a few potted plants. Occasionally a vending machine would show up and Joseph treated himself to a drink of hot coffee or two while he made more charting of his accounts in his diary. The coffee came from a few cents of coins or crumpled up notes of money that he found lying here and there, the beverage being something similar to caffeine riddled drinks from lousy coffee houses or something of worse quality. Of course nothing very good or wholesome could be expected from such a bland work area, much less heart warming or cozy, it was just a drink to pass time.

By now Joseph had also realized something. For the time being he was in no real threat since, if he could not get out, nothing could get in and there were absolutely no dead bodies here in his living nightmare. However, sometimes, he would get a brief glimpse into the real world or what he figured was the world from Ruvik’s mind. A temporary window into the dimension where Sebastian was. Sometimes when he walked through the corridors, the hallways would change to have wooden doors on either ends and the walls would be green, covered in blood stains. A large creature would sometimes be in one of those rooms hacking away at a Haunted. They could not see him or touch him and likewise he could not interact or shoot at them whatsoever. When things like that occurred, the scene would hold for a while like a real environment and sometimes there would be extra ammunition, bullets or grenades to load up although he didn’t need them. There was no point in continuously target practicing either. 

At some point, he knew that Sebastian and Kidman had gotten out alive. Not only had he felt it but he’d also seen it. To describe it was puzzling and difficult. It was almost as if a panel of wall had dissolved into a one way looking glass for observation purposes only and that he was looking through a foggy pane from a high up place at the arena down below, in the other world where Sebastian valiantly destroyed Ruvik and emerged into the world of waking once more. Vanishing from the mind trap. Once the battle had been fought and all was over, the image and window had faded like it was never there and even as Joseph had tried banging and slamming against it with all his might, it did not crack. He had also been yelling at the top of his lungs, hoping that Sebastian would look up and realize he was there or even see him but he did not and the window had started turning back into a wall creeping towards where Joseph looked out, like frost on glass, covering everything until it finally obscured his vision and Joseph was once more found himself stuck in his lonely quiet world again.


	5. Sebastian: The Dream

The walls and the room was suddenly sullen and monotone, rather than the dirty colors it was before. No blood or broken things lay about. It was just bare with bits of rolled up paper scattered about. Sebastian was dreaming. Something about this place was calming, quiet and desolate but extremely peaceful. There were no windows, just passageways and he took a few steps forward, experimenting this new dream world. Taking left turns and another right, Sebastian found himself standing before an office room, partitioned from the rest of the passageways by a single wooden door. He drew his gun, his hand clenched firmly around the door knob, turning it and the door swung open with a screech from it’s rusty hinges. Sebastian aimed the gun, his eyes scanning the room for any possible threat, but there was none. Instead, someone else was there.

A man or a boy with dark slicked hair and black rimmed glasses sat at the table in the corner. His face cradled in his arms, presumably asleep. Sebastian smiled, walking over to him briskly. If this was really a dream, he would not be able to touch this person, perhaps he was appearing like a ghost to him. Ruvik was no longer in control of this world, meaning that no one had the power to forcefully switch him to different dimensions. Sebastian wanted to know for sure and he reached his hand out, letting his fingertips brush against the leather clad wrist of the sleeping man before him. For a moment nothing happened, and there was contact, but a second later, Sebastian’s hand faded through like mist. He had found what he was looking for and was still trying to find away to pick him out of this pocket dimension. He needed his partner to know that he was there. Then he had an idea. Pulling out the younger detective’s gun, he held it in his right hand and mimicking the pose of the other man’s arm, he placed the gun on the table. Sebastian’s limb immediately started to dissolve but the gun stayed substantial and for a while, the touch of his warm hand lingered over the other man’s before a furious shake pulled him out of his sleep and back into the shattered remnants of Ruvik’s world.

Sebastian woke up, gasping for air, his chest felt tight and constricted as if he had been holding his breath underwater for far too long. He was still in the room from before and nothing had changed. It really was a dream but when he checked his other holster, it was empty. The gun there was missing and he knew that some part of his attempt to reach his sought after target was successful. “I hope that smart ass will get the message” he muttered to himself as he got to his feet warily. There was a shuffling noise outside the door in the hallway and Sebastian listened carefully, deducing it was probably just one haunted on its own. The detective readied himself to get moving once more. There was fresh hope now and one thing was for sure, he had alerted Joseph of his presence and they were both going to make it out alive.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a well illuminated lab-like room, a short haired woman stood over a strange bath tub contraption. A man lay there, still and un-moving but he was far from dead. His consciousness was merely plugged into a mind system, on a mission to recover something very important. Sighing to herself, said woman reached into the man’s holster and pulled out the spare gun. Checking the initials carved on it; “J. Oda”, she slipped it into the man’s hand and continued to watch him quietly as she had done for the past hours.


	6. Joseph: The Gun

It was a frustrating play on his mind to wander about aimlessly but he could do nothing. All the information he gathered at times seemed to bring him a step closer to finding out a development but always ended up pushing him two steps back. The relentless hours of searching for clues was exhaustive and while he made his stay, he had gone to lengthy measures to make himself comfortable, eventually holing himself up in the office, keeping the work chair and desk to himself.

It was in that self proclaimed office that he found refuge in his prison where time had no meaning. He was taking a rest after cracking his skull and reaching his wits end on how Beacon and Leslie and everyone else was tied to the situation. The logical reasons that he drew up based solely on what he knew could not paint a full picture and had he resorted to having an unnecessary nap, keeping his left arm folded on the table and his head down. Deciding to sprawl out onto the table, he kept his left arm more outstretched on the desk than the other and tried to get some sleep. He closed his eyes comfortably, letting his mind drift in circles about Kidman and Ruvik and why both of them had wanted Leslie. Then he began to systematically elleminate the most unrealistic possibilities that tied Sebastian, himself and others to this case. Eventually his inner musings settled with the fact that Kidman was perhaps not a rookie after all and that someone had forced him into whatever mind connection he was in. Boredom got the better of him and soon he was dozing off mildly, still attentive of the stillness in the room just because he slept lightly. As he sat there he felt an odd sensation as if the atmosphere of the room had changed. It was like an intrusion and someone was trying to get through, reminding him of static when channels were switched between long programs or a radio wave cutting into another station. For a brief period he felt as if there was someone there. He was not superstitious but did not dare to look up or even hint that he was awake. Someone was standing before him at the desk and had placed their hand over his own free hand. He could feel it becuse the sensation was warm and resembled a human tuch. As quickly as it came, it vanished and the static energy in the room stopped. Joseph was stunned. Sitting up quickly, on full guard, he looked around. The place was still the same and there was no one in the room but in his right hand was a pistol. Not the one that he had in his holster but his very own handgun. Somehow it had traversed dimensions to get to its owner or maybe had been put there. Given it to him, perhaps to help him or a sign that someone was trying to get through to him. For an instance his hope sparked that it could be Sebastian but he remembered that that was impossible. The longer he thought about it the more unlikely it seemed.


	7. Sebastian: The Break

“When is this bullshit going to end, Christ!” Sebastian swore as he ducked badly aimed bullets that were spattered in his general direction. He was currently using the back of a steel table as a cover and had gotten himself foolishly cornered by a group of haunted. As he fired back at the steadily approaching mass of zombies, his gun ran out of ammunition, the empty shells falling to the ground with a clatter. 

“Fuck!” he said loudly to himself, bending to reload his gun frantically before launching another volley of strategic head shots. He managed to take at least ten down before he saw his chance and leaped out from the safe zone. He cleared his way through, turning right and paused for a millisecond at the wall before him. There was a single, familiar symbol spray-painted on it. It was the same symbol he had encountered when he first arrived in the left-over world. Back then, an antique machine gun had been locked and aimed at the wall and symbol. Upon tripping the gun mechanism, the symbol had revealed a rift in the dimensions. Sebastian was sure the sign was the same and pointers from other related symbos seemed to prove him right. This had to be the opening. The haunted were still after him and as the first one rounded the corner, he started firing bullets into the cement wall.

“C’mon! This has to be it!” He yelled blasting more shots into the wall. Cracks formed and bits of rubble started to give way. There were more haunted now and they were pressing forward, quickly. Sebastian was almost loosing his composure when the entire wall crumbled in on itself and a glowing blue barrier gave way, shattering like a smashed mirror, spraying bits of blue glass outwards. The force of the explosion knocking several haunted off their feet. The wall was now a semi translucent, large, rectangular liquid and there was a mirror world mimicking this one. Blue-grey like the one Sebastian had been in in his dream. The corners of this new wall started to solidify, back into bricks and cement but the haunted were not chasing him yet. Now was his chance.

He dashed towards the effervescent blue blob and jumped, falling through the tear between places and he landed, face first onto a sparsely carpeted hallway. Grimacing, he got to his feet and looked up. Ahead of him, a few paces beyond his reach, was Joseph, standing frozen in place. He was gripping his gun but his hands were shaking and charging at said detective, from a large hole in the opposite wall, was a menacing, mutilated Haunted.


	8. Joseph: The First Haunted

Some time later, he was wandering through the corridors again and this time the place shifted abruptly. He wasn’t expecting the change. He pulled out his gun at the ready from reflex and he was just in time as well. The scene shifted once more to the carpeted corridor except this time it stretched away to the left of the hall from where he had came. There was a lone haunted standing inside the building, behind it the entire section of the wall had been blown through revealing a post apocalyptic world beyond. Behind Joseph was an empty hallway with a single wrecked sofa and a door blown into splinters, hanging by its hinges. Somehow something about this was different and almost extremely real. The haunted seemed to have seen him from a short distance and Joseph, wondering whether or not it could do any harm, held his weapon. He froze as the creature moved its head, it was very aware of his presence and it knew he was there. Recalling that he had left his bullets in the office, his hands shook and the grip on his gun slackened. The haunted let out an angry, animalistic, growl and charged towards him. “This isn’t good,” he thought. Joseph was definitely and most certainly not prepared for this and for what happened next.


	9. We Meet Again, Partner

Sebastian sprinted to Joseph’s side quickly and drew his own gun.  
“Jesus Christ Joseph, can’t you at least handle your own gun? Don’t tell me all the time you spent alone made you such a wimp.” he snickered, firing a clean head shot at the rambling creature, watching as its organs splattered on the ground and walls as it fell.

Joseph was more than startled and certainly more than happy to see Sebastian. It had all happened very quickly. The other detective had somehow materialized behind him and cooly took down the lone haunted. It would have been an understatement to say that he had been saved right in the nick of time. Joseph himself was not sure why he had allowed himself to become so complacent and unprepared. 

“Are you all right?” Sebastian asked, his question lingering in the silence for a little longer than Joseph would have liked.

“I’m fine. I haven’t had any headaches since I got here.” he answered, tucking his returned gun back into his holster. He pushed his glasses up to face and watch Sebastian as he checked his own weapons and Joseph's empty gun, reloading it with extra rounds.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked.

“Just pure luck” Sebastian said as he surveyed the area, hiding his smile.


End file.
